In the absence of successful infiltration bids by heavily armed terrorists from across the Line of Control (LoC) and sustained anti-terrorist operations the total number of 'active' foreign terrorists has drastically come down below 70 in the Kashmir region.
Due to the constantly declining number of foreign terrorists, the leftover commanders active in Kashmir valley have reworked their strategy of carrying out only 'hit and run' attacks on the security personnel and political representatives with the help of local recruits.
Sharing his assessment of the ground situation in the backdrop of unrest in Afghanistan, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the Army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps or Chinar Corps, Lt Gen D P Pandey Monday said, "there has been no ceasefire violation along the LoC in Kashmir since the reiteration of the agreement between the armies of India and Pakistan in February this year". The Chinar Corps Commander said there have been some infiltration attempts, but unlike previous years they have not been adequately supported by ceasefire violations.
Referring to the police reports,Lt-Gen Pandey said, "around 60-70 foreign terrorists who are basically Pakistanis are likely present in the Kashmir valley. ”Their strategy is to not carry out any terrorist attack, but motivate the local youth to action and give them arms so that they are killed in encounters. It benefits them in a way that when a young boy from our country, our Kashmir, is killed, his family becomes angry with us. This is their strategy and they do not carry out operations and work from behind,” he added.
The GoC, however, said there is a change in the mindset of the people in Kashmir as they have ”realised that they have been taken up the wrong path by the people within their own community”.
Referring to the threat from Taliban, Lt-Gen Pandey maintained there is no need to worry about the possibility of a spillover of Taliban terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir.
”This question has been asked to me a number of times on events which are unrelated. Right? So, I will again answer your question: why are you worried? You are safe and you will be kept safe. There is enough effort,” The GoC said if anyone picks up arms, they will face consequences and will either be neutralised or apprehended, or will have to surrender.
He said the security forces have been reaching out to the families of the youth who have joined militancy.
”We have to ensure that they (families) reach out to their young ones who have been misled and they should be allowed to surrender by motivating them to be a responsible citizen of the country. There cannot be a better opportunity as of today to ensure that they can fall back to civil society,’ he said.
The senior army officer said those people within Kashmir who are “misleading” the youth to pick up arms must be exposed.
”We must expose the people who are within Kashmir who are ensuring that while their children are studying in good schools, colleges, have good jobs or businesses, but the youth which is misled, who is not from such an affluent background, not so well-educated, picks a weapon and dies.
Earlier, the GOC Chinar Corps felicitated students of the first and the second batch of the Army’s Kashmir Super 30 (Medical) course who are now successfully undergoing the MBBS and other courses after clearing the NEET.